Individual products from production lines are frequently packed and stored in larger containers for shipping and storage. When these products are packed in a specific quantity, an accurate product count is important for consumer expectations, available volume of the container, manufacturing profitability, and the like. Although there are means known in the art to count individual products as they are produced, this can be made difficult when the product has an irregular or non-uniform shape, travels down a production line with an irregular frequency, or has been removed and then returned to the production line after an initial product count. Often in these circumstances the products are hand counted and hand packed into the container.
One attempt in the art has been to develop a system that accurately delivers symmetrically shaped products onto an endless conveyor having entrainment members. (See U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,213 to Shubert) In Shubert, the apparatus delivers one product to one correspondingly shaped entrainment member on an endless conveyor. The corresponding shape assures one product for one entrainment member. Also, in one Shubert embodiment, a set of photoelectric cells working with a ‘pusher’ ejects products that are too close together in sequence that would effect the indexing of a delivery conveyor with the entrainment conveyor.
While there have been significant advances in the art, further advances are possible and desired. For example, it is desirable to provide an apparatus and method that does not require the use of multiple counting means on a delivery conveyor. It would also be desirable to simplify such an apparatus to reduce the precision needed for indexing product delivery with an entrainment conveyor, while also accurately handling irregular shaped products. Further, it is desirable to not eject a product from the delivery line for any reason as in Shubert, since this step would require further handling and system complexity to accommodate.